by Chuck Nishihira
Here is a species that takes me all the way back to my earliest days keeping killifish. This species along with Aphyosemion australe and Aphyosemion gardneri (at the time), were the very first killies that I worked with. I suspect this was the case for many killie keepers from that time period. It was a time when a rack filled with one gallon glass mayonaisse jars looked fantastic! 🙂 These species taught me the basics of keeping this special family of fish. It’s funny to think back and remember the excitement of tying your first yarn mops and boiling Jiffy 7 peat pellets. And the resulting joy of finding and picking out the first eggs that were laid.
Decades later, I felt that same excitement as I was running my nets in a small trickle of water. Here was the first african killifish that I caught myself, on a road into the Crystal mountains of Gabon. It couldn’t have been more perfect that Aphyosemion striatum would be the first species that I would meet in the wild.
